Post navigation

About aganzul

Al Case began his study of the martial arts in 1967. He began writing for the magazines in 1981. He has written nearly two million words on martial arts related subjects, which makes him the Number One Martial Arts Writer of All Time.
He is the founder of Matrixing and Neutronics.
He can be reached through Monster Martial Arts.

Why Do I Need a Black Belt from You…

Thanks to all who have purchased
The Biggest Martial Arts Lesson of All!
It’s available on Amazon.
I’ll be putting up links and ads for it
one of these days.

Hey,
I’m not good at social media,
but I was trying to figure it out the other day,
and came across a site
with a lot of bad things to say about me.
I usually laugh at these things,
they’re always written by people
who have never taken a course,
but have an opinion.

For whatever reason,
maybe the desire for abuse,
I read a couple of the ‘complaints.’
And, man,
I got a good one.

‘Why do I need a black belt from you
if I already have one?’

Man,
unfortunately,
the complaint was old,
no way to really respond,
and I actually did want to respond.
My answer would have been:

because your system is probably flawed,
because you monkey see and monkey do learned
without understanding what you are doing.

Look,
I respect that the guy has probably put in some work,
maybe even a few years,
endured some bruises and such,
but he’s basically working at 10%
if he doesn’t know the reasons behind what he is doing.
The unfortunate news is
he wasn’t asking seriously,
he wasn’t seeking,
he was just being a Beavis and Butthead type of guy,
smart mouthing me.

That’s the trouble,
you see.
People want to argue without the facts.
You see it in politics.
The idiot who says things like:
‘You’re a racist,’
when there is NO hint of racism.
Or starts calling people names,
when you ask for the facts.

There is just a s segment of the population,
and this is true of the whole world,
that wants to be heard,
without taking the time to learn anything beforehand.

And,
this is true in the martial arts.
‘Al is bad,
you can’t make a black belt
in less than three years!’

But,
you can,
I’ve got video proof,
but they don’t take the time to see the proof,
they just want to be heard.

Ever hear that old saw?
‘Those who speak do not know,
those who know do not speak.’

That says it all.

Now,
for anybody who DOES want the proof,
who DOES wish to seek out the true martial arts…

There is video proof on the three month black belt course
(120 lessons!)
MonsterMartialArts.com

And,
if you can’t afford the SMALL sum asked,
you could always look through my books for proof.

Outlaw Karate: The Secret of the One Year Black Belt,
and many others…

And,
you could simply read my blog,
alcase.wordpress.com,
do a search for the term Master Instructor,
or other related terms,
you will come up with TONS of testimonials,
actual case histories,
if you will,
written by the people who have done the courses,
people who didn’t voice an opinion,
but went looking for the truth.

The truth is scientific.
It can’t be argued with.
But it can be ignored,
unfortunately,
it is usually ignored by those who ‘write’ the loudest.

The Biggest Martial Arts Lesson of All Released!!!

Been busy,
keeping my head low and working on the martial arts,
and came up with a TEN VOLUME series.
That’s right, TEN volumes.
That’s a lot of writing.

In fact,
that is about 1500 pages,
700+ chapters,
320,000 words!
That’s a lot.

It is called,
‘The Biggest Martial Arts Lesson of All.’

It is based on the original 500 articles,
which I used to sell on Monster,
but which went out of print,
mainly because I had so many more than 500 articles.

The books have been divided into approximately 25 sections.
Karate, Taekwondo, Kung Fu, Chi Power, Matrixing,
lots of chapters.
You can see which volume has which chapters
by searching on Amazon
and reading the descriptions.

Now,
you can get a cheap kindle version,
about five of them i am letting go on kindle for $.99.
Low price to encourage sales.
the other 5 are $4.99.

I recommend the paperbacks,
which are still inexpensive
at only $9.99 a piece.
The reason the paperbacks are so much better
is that kindle has a real rough time with formatting.
But,
up to you.

And,
if you would,
I need some five star reviews.
If you have a PDF of the original 500 articles,
you are qualified to leave a review.
And if you buy,
please say kind things.
If you are going to give me unkind things,
or less than five stars,
fugetit.

So,
in these TEN VOLUMES
you are going to get the pearls and priceless wisdom
that result from 50 years in the martial arts.
Laughers on who is better,
Michael Jackson or Bruce Lee,
training tips like
how to master light kung fu,
the correct way to power up your punch,
developing kicks that will knock over surly elephants.
and histories like
the real story of the Shaolin Temple,
tales of forgotten masters,
and so on.

Look with 700+ chapters,
you could read a chapter a day,
and it would only take you two years
to become thoroughly enlightened.

Or you could take the short cut,
read them overnight
and be enlightened by tomorrow morning.

So,
go get it,

‘The Biggest Martial Arts Lesson of All.’

It’s in ten volumes,
it’s on Amazon,
(publishing is in process,
so it may take a couple of days for some of the volumes),
or if you want to send me more of a commission,
it’s available on Createspace.

The Limits of MMA

I’m a big fan of MMA.
I am a critic,
however,
of those who believe that MMA is the only way,
who would speak ill of karate, kung fu, or any other art.
MMA is just a piece of the bigger pie,
a piece of the bigger martial arts
which includes all martial arts.
Which bigger art,
thanks to matrixing,
makes sense and is easily learned.

So,
I was teaching the other night,
got a kid who was a wild hair.
Now,
the kid is actually not bad.
He can freestyle,
and he can grapple,
but he can’t control his body.
Isn’t that interesting?
He’s actually a black belt.
Not a bad one,
but he can’t control his body,
and here is where we come to the limits of MMA,
and the tragedy of this particular martial artist.

When he learned jujitsu
his teaching stopped at the techniques of jujitsu.
So he learned how to freestyle,
to fill the gap.
To be competent both in fisticuffs and grappling.

So I asked him to do a simple move.
Something like a block and punch.
He mouthed off,
sulked,
laughed,
and looked like garbage when he finally tried the simple move.

His attitude was:
I know how to fight
so I don’t need to know that stuff.

So his art stops at flesh contact.
That was the art he learned,
jujitsu,
and when there is no flesh contact,
no wrestling,
he doesn’t know what to do.

What about his ability to fight?
All he can do is kick and punch,
destroy,
and while there is an art to destruction,
it is not the true art.

The true art lies in control.

To the degree that you can control your body…
AND OTHER BODIES
to that degree you have the true art.

To the degree that you canNOT control your body…
AND OTHER BODIES
to that degree you do not have the true art.

He can control his own body in the limits of wrestling.
He can control his body if it comes to kick and punch.
He CANNOT control another person’s body.

And here is a subtle but determining factor.
If you practice MMA,
without recourse to classical arts,
you practice beating people,
not controlling them.
And that puts a severe limit
on what you know
and what you can learn.
MMA is great,
but you have to know how to get beyond that one limit.

So I asked the kid to punch me.
He couldn’t.
Every time he tried to punch me I would simply shift,
slap his hand aside,
and control his body.

Then,
I applied a grab art,
tied him up,
took him down,
and said:

‘Would you like to be able to control other people like that?
Would you like to know the simple tricks I use?
It’s easy,
but you’ll have to work hard,
and you’ll have to think.’

He mouthed off,
sulked,
laughed,
and made himself scarce.

His attitude was:
I know how to fight
so I don’t need to know that stuff.

In spite of the fact that I had just proved it worked.

And here is the tragedy,
in a nutshell,
the whole thing of what was wrong with the kid,

He was scared of what he didn’t know.

He was scared of learning something.
Heck,
if he learned something,
it would prove that he didn’t know everything.
Can’t have that, eh?

And that’s true,
to a degree,
of almost every child,
and even of every adult.

I don’t want to learn
because it will prove I don’t know something.

I CAN’T HAVE MY IGNORANCE SEEN!

So,
the kid hangs around the dojo,
marginally useful,
as long as the task is simple,
but you can’t trust him to do any teaching,
as teaching is merely a way
for him to be dominant (read bully),
and prove to the world
that he knows something,
even though he doesn’t.
He only knows shadows,
and the light eludes him.

How Matrixing Brings Arts Together

School’s started for many,
so,
you students,
are you going to get a Matrix course,
have it done by summer?
Or even Christmas?

I have a LOT of good letters.
Just got the following,
and it really made my day.
Kurt has been a long time student of matrixing,
taken his time and done it right.
Here go…

Al,
Its been a while since I texted last. Back in January of this year I received the Create Your Own Art package. I finally completed it this week. The reason for spending so much time on it wasn’t one of laziness, I actually spent several hours on it every week. Once I received the package and viewed the Intercepting Fist segment I became intrigued and practiced and viewed it over and over again. Then when I viewed the Pa Kua disc, it really hit home how Matrixing came into play. As a result of this, I had to dig out the Butterfly Pa Kua disc and of course saw how the Ten Hands mimicked the Matrixing of the Intercepting Fist, it really hit home to me. I have been circle walking utilizing the 8 Animal Pa Kua for at least 2 years now and have found all the applications of my core art of Kenpo, in the Butterfly applications as well as the Intercepting Fist Circle walking. Of course this led me to take apart 5 Army Tai Chi and Matrix Tai Chi and find the same applications.

So I’ve spent the last 10 months practicing, experimenting, and rediscovering in the name of Creating My Own Art. And after all this I decided that I cannot create what has already been created. The best I could do is re-organize what already is. The Taoist Arts(Tai Chi, Bagua, Hsing I) have been around for a long time, and in the case of Tai Chi, (possibly the Mother of all Martial Arts), over 1500 years.

While Practicing with a friend, who has limited use of his left shoulder as result of an injury, I saw that he could not do the Intercepting Fist, or a simple Hi block or inverted block with that arm. Utilizing Pa Kua(Bagua) I was able to show him how to execute a circle walking direction turn and do a hi block with his good arm. he was elated and I was very full of myself! It was then that I decided to not create my own art but instead to re-task what I have learned as to fit the needs of people with limitations due to injury or handy-cap. I mean Dr. Paul Lam has done very well teaching Tai Chi to ease the pain of Arthritis. And many others teach Tai Chi to improve balance and range of motion in seniors. So this is my new calling and I attribute it to the Create Your Own Art Program. For this I thank you. It has really improved my skills and ability and hopefully I can help others as a result.

Finally, I would like to add that the only thing missing from my practice of the Internal Arts is Hsing I Chuan. I have had some exposure to that art but have found (at my age) that learning the 5 element forms as well as the 12 Animal forms would be a bit much. However, I do see a need for more linier attack and defense. So, taking inspiration from Matrix Tai Chi, I developed 8 short “lines”, by which I walk
a straight line, performing each of the Pa Kua animals 8 times forward, starting turning slightly left, step turn slightly right and so forth for 8 steps, them kick and pivot 180 degrees and do the same stepping back to the starting point, kick and pivot the perform the next animal(start with Butterfly Palm. Step the line changing palm left the, right etc.). It can also be done as a two man form, one advancing the other retreating. One attacking the other defending. This kind of rounded things out for me(if you’ll pardon the pun).

In closing, I apologize for the length of this email but after 9 months of this course of study I am very enthusiastic! But basically it boils down to me saying thanks!

Respectfully, Kurt A. Nelle’

Thank you, Kurt.
And for everybody,
Matrixing is quick,
you have realizations like crazy,
but it sets the stage for
some really long term learning.
At the end you understand
how the arts fit together.
You become able to shift from art to art,
create art as you need it.

There are just so-o-o many things you can do,
once you jump the fence,
put aside your limits,
and realize that there is nothing stopping you,
except your own self.

Matrixing opens the door.

Thanks Kurt,
and well done on your desire to help others.
That is the REAL art.

I get a lot of questions: can you really make a black belt in a year, how do I know you’re legit, how do I test for black belt, and so on.
I just responded to one fellow, and thought I would share my answers, maybe get ahead of anybody who has had these questions.
Here go:

Hi ______, glad to meet you.
Here’s a write up on the testing procedure.https://alcase.wordpress.com/martial-arts-video-testing/
As for qualifications, I’ve been practicing martial arts for 50 years. But that means nothing, because I could have been practicing incorrectly for 50 years, so go to MonsterMartialArts.com and look for the testimonials. I’ve got 600 pages of wins over the last ten years, and I think four returns.

Now, you will have people telling you you can’t do it, and that is because they can’t do it.
The fact of the matter is that people used to earn their black belts in a year or two, then some kenpo fellows came up with ‘car contracts,’ (actually, they were Arthur Murray dance studio contracts), and they revised the martial arts for four years programs, expanded belt levels, material to teach, etc.

The real secret here is of having the correct information on the martial arts.
For instance, just to give one small datum, you will see people do a side kick with the edge of the foot. Looks great, looks deadly, but doesn’t work. To prove it simply walk a hundred feet on the knife edges of your feet. Ouch. The correct way to do a side kick is to use the heel. Walk on your heel for a while. Awkward, but very good at weight bearing.

So what I do is go over the body (on the master instructor course) and explain the correct way to use the body in the martial arts. This is backed up by physics, and common sense. Nobody has ever presented ANY argument concerning the material in the Master Instructor course. They can’t, you can’t argue with what is so obviously the truth.

Furthermore, people who do the Master Instructor Course, once they see the correct way of doing things, instantly change. They have to. They can’t continue to do things the wrong way.

The individual courses themselves are logical arrangements of the martial arts. Therefore, there is nothing out of order. There are no missing pieces. There is no mystical bushwah. There is only scientifically accurate and easy to remember methodology.

But, you won’t know till you try. And, if by chance you find that you disagree with me, that I am wrong, then you simply say so and I refund your money. No argument.

I sold my first books back in the eighties. I started MonsterMartialArts.com in 2002. The video courses were started back in 2007. Still in business, still doing fine.

And, finally, I am always available by email. I answer everything, even from people who haven’t ordered my courses. Sometimes it takes a day or two, and sometimes mail gets lost (write me again) but I am here. This is what I do. I have done it for 50 years, and sure would like another 50.

Hope that answers your questions, or at least reassures you as to my integrity.

Martial Arts Punch Lines (get it?)

A quick word,
I had inadvertently taken my list of courses off the site.
This is the full list,
so examine the left sidebar on the Monster,
everything is there.

Now,
came across these little gems,
thought I would share…

You’re not outnumbered,
you’re target rich.

When people ask me what I do for a living:
‘I teach people how to maim and kill.’

Bruises are really just temporary tattoos.

Kung Fu has been curing ADHD
since 500 AD

For my birthday
I want pound cake and punch.

violence isn’t always the answer,
but it sure is an option

the best part of a joke is the punch line.

Okay.
Nuff frivolity.
Let’s get serious.

It is true,
a picture is worth a thousand words.
and,
that being true,
a video is worth a thousand thousand words.
But,
here’s the cruel truth…
you still have to understand what the words mean.

I remember when Karate first hit the shores,
the Japanese said:
‘it will take an American three lifetimes to understand the martial arts.’
And,
that’s true,
if you don’t understand the words.

For me,
chi was the big mysterious.
Thought about it,
tried to figure it out,
made no sense.
Then I started looking up words like:
energy,
force,
spirit,
intention,
will power,
and so on.
And,
suddenly,
it all made sense.

Tell me I don’t understand chi.
Heck,
I can project it outside my body.
You know the funny thing?
I wish somebody had told me
the power of understanding words
back when I was 19.
I would be moving cars,
not just putting out candles.
All my training would have changed,
gone in a different direction.

Things that Destroy Karate, Kung Fu and Aikido

Good hot afternoon!
109 degrees out here in la la land,
and we have two choices:
hide in air conditioning,
or…
WORK OUT!

I opted to work out,
the rest of this day is going to be SOO-O-O cool.

Okay,
things that destroy Karate, Kung Fu, Aikido,
or ANY other martial art.

Building reaction time.
Which means feeding the concept of ‘muscle memory.’
Muscle memory is a psychological concept,
and it means that you think you have to train your body,
much the way Pavlov trains a dog.
Think about that when your grandma
shuffles up behind you
taps you on the shoulder,
and you spin around and chop her frail old head off.
Her head lies,
bloody and cock-eyed,
staring up at you in hurt and dismay
while her body crumples into a pile,
and you did it all out of ‘muscle memory,’
knee jerk reaction.
This type of thought is based on the idea
that there is no you,
that there is only your body,
and you don’t have to be aware of what you are doing.
Or responsible.

Whenever I find a student building ‘muscle memory,’
I tell them what a circuit is,
then I begin changing their training
so that they realize they must have choice.
They must be aware,
and able to choose from options.

Another thing that kills Kung Fu, Taekwondo, Kenpo,
or ANY other martial art,
is fantasy.
The student is taught to fantasize their movements
as a destructive dance,
where hordes fall beneath their lightening fists.
Yikes!
The danger here is that fantasy is not reality.
When I see a student falling in love with fantasies,
or false realities,
I elect myself as their dummy
and keep injecting things like
punches in the middle of their deadly dances.
Why doesn’t my fantasy work? They moan,
rubbing their chests tenderly.
Try looking at reality,
I cheerfully offer.

Probably one of the most terrible things
that REALLY destroys the martial arts,
such as Jujitsu, Tai Chi Chuan, and Shaolin,
is the simple lack of relaxation.
People seek power,
and ignore the spaces between the techniques.
They never learn to see the hidden techniques,
and they become seduced by
power (domination)
muscles (image)
and other things.
The simple fact of learning to relax
while doing the martial arts,
will do miracles.
In fact,
all the tricks of the ancient masters
become obvious and easy.
You learn to unbalance others with a breath,
to strike with a finger
and leave a coconut-sized bruise.

Anyway,
think about it,
and think about the seven corrections
in the Master Instructor course.
These are the seven things you have to do
if you are going to have perfect form.
These seven things are so powerful
that people just read them,
and their art is changed.
They simply can’t do their art wrong anymore,
not when they know the right way to do things.